Month: July 2014

My climbing season came to an early and abrupt end in 2014, when my elbow began to hurt from repeatedly hitting the gym. Apparently, muscle strengthens far more quickly than tendons, which take can take years of training to get to rock star level.

I’m not a star; but in my short time of pulling plastic holds indoors I felt like I was becoming competent, or at least adequate. My goal is to follow my accomplished friends on expeditions to remote cliffs and do more than pull my own weight. I want to contribute.

Although sports sometimes bring out my competitive nature, most of the time I’m competing against myself. It’s not difficult for me to enjoy a day teaching on the slopes of Mount Peter or on the Bunny Hutch at Whiteface. I like to be outside.

Most people in New Jersey are familiar with the legend of Action Park. Even those too young to remember have heard the stories.

The drownings, the broken bones, and in one case electrocutions that marred the park’s reputation and left it buried in litigation until it was forced to close down in 1996. This summer the park found a way to reopen.

We drove to Vernon early last Saturday with a plan to arrive as soon as they opened and cover as much as the park as possible. We reached the compound just after ten to find the parking lot empty save for two teenage attendants and the old familiar rainbow banner from the 90s. Parking is six dollars.

Recently we had the chance to see the progress that’s been made on Gore’s big summer project: the replacement of the Adirondack Express. What impressed us was the amount of work that’s required to complete a job of this size.

The original lift required twenty-eight towers to cover the 7000 foot expanse from Gore’s base to the saddle on Bear Mountain. The new express will require twenty free-standing lift towers to do the same.

Each one of those twenty towers will sit on a deep footing that will rest below grade on a surface that was blasted out of bedrock. Within each of these craters a form is being built that will contain the rebar, concrete and bolt configuration needed to hold up the massive towers.